THE Prince of Wales used private conversations with ministers to try to persuade Tony Blair’s government to expand grammar schools, it has been revealed.

Former education secretary David Blunkett said he told him Labour policy was not to increase them but the Prince “didn’t like that”.

“He was very keen that we should go back to a different era where youngsters had what he would have seen as the opportunity to escape from their background, whereas I wanted to change their background,” he said.

The MP, education secretary between 1997 and 2001, said although he disagreed with the Prince he “did not mind” him trying to get involved in policy matters.

“If you are waiting to be the King of the United Kingdom...you genuinely have to engage with something or you’d go spare.”

He is one of four politicians to reveal the lengths to which the Prince will go to try to influence government policy. In a separate interview for BBC radio documentary The Royal Activist, Labour’s former environment minister Michael Meacher said he and the Prince “would consort together quietly” to affect climate change and GM crops policy.

“I knew that he largely agreed with me and he knew that I largely agreed with him. We were together in trying to persuade Tony Blair to change course,” he said.

The Prince is known for his strong opinions, which have landed him in hot water

Former Tory prime minister Sir John Major, who also had private conversations with the heir to the throne, backed the interventions.

“It is encouraging that the Prince is entirely free, from his unique perspective, to write to ministers or the prime minister in a way that is invariably intended to be helpful,” he told the programme, aired yesterday.

Former Labour Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain, said he shared an interest in alternative medicine with him. He told the Prince he would pilot an NHS alternative medicine scheme in Ulster.

“When he learnt about this he was really enthusiastic and tried to persuade the Welsh government...and the government in Whitehall to do the same thing for England, but not successfully,” Mr Hain said.

Charles also wrote to the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, expressing concern over the “compensation culture” and Human Rights Act. The Prince is known for his strong opinions, which have landed him in hot water. He has spoken out against GM crops, “monstrous carbuncles” in architecture and nano technology.

But he has not always wanted his letters to government departments attacking policies to be made public. There is a legal battle between journalists who want the letters published and ministers who want them to stay private. The Supreme Court is likely to rule on them later this year.